Asit Kumar Haldar Biography 
Asit Kumar Haldar was an Indian painter and teacher of Bengal school of art and a major artist of the Bengal renaissance. He is Rabindranath Tagore's grandnephew. He is also known as an assistant of Tagore at Shantiniketan. From 1911 to 1915 he was an art teacher at Shantiniketan, and also served as the principal of the Kala Bhavan School from 1911 to 1923. During this time period, he assisted Tagore for his cultural activities and academics. Asit is also credited to introducing new styles of art to students and revolutionized decorative and ceremonial displays there.
Asit Kumar Haldar was born in 1890, and is closely related to Tagore’s family. His maternal grandmother and Rabindranath Tagore were siblings. Thus he was Tagore's grandnephew. He was born into a family of artists and most of them were linked to painting and drawing. Both his grandfather and father were painters, and Asit too joined the same school of art. He began his formal studies at Government School of Art, Calcutta at the age of 14 where he learned sculpting. He used lacquer, tempera, oil, watercolours etc as medium for his works.
He conducted an expedition to Ajanta caves and documented the paintings of Ajanta on the frescoes between 1909 and 1911. He conducted one more expedition to the Bagh Caves later. After his expedition at Ajanta, he joined as an art teacher at Shantiniketan in 1911 and worked for 4 years. He also worked as the principal of the Kala Bhavan School till 1923, assisting Rabindranath Tagore for his works. After that he made a tour of Europe in 1923 and travelled England, France and Germany to know more about art. After he returned, he became Principal of the Maharaja’s School of Arts and Crafts, Jaipur for one year, followed by Maharaja’s School of Arts and Crafts in Lucknow.
Published: November 27, 2018
Updated: November 27, 2018
